Edge Commercial Real Estate will open new office and expand workforce

Edge Commercial Real Estate, which has offices in Maryland and Northern Virginia, plans to open a third location in Washington, D.C. this year.

The Bethesda, Md.-based firm, which has a staff of 50 people, saidits workforce also will grow - to 150 in three years to accommodate a growing roster of clients.

The firm, which opened in 2007, projects revenue growth of more than 25 percent for 2014.

“I wish I had a nickel for every time someone commented that we were out of our minds for launching a regional commercial real estate services firm into an atrocious economy to go head-to-head with huge, publicly traded firms. … Nearly seven years later, our steep growth trajectory throughout has validated our model,” Joseph A. Sutton Jr., Edge’s managing partner, said in a statement.

While some asset managers are comfortable only hiring large firms, Edge says the company has been successful in landing institutional clients by providing good customer service. They include Aetna Life Insurance, Colony Realty Partners, Federal Realty Investment Trust, and Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America.

Edge began with a handful of people working out of an 800-square-foot office in Bethesda. Sales have steadily increased year after year, the company said in a press release, with the firm carrying no debt.

“We’re extremely excited about what’s to come in 2014, because now that we have completed building an institutional grade infrastructure, we can now concentrate on significantly growing our advisory practice,” Sutton said.

Currently, the firm manages more than 8.4 million square feet of commercial space throughout the D.C. region.